PIP Chief says 1 million could work.

For information only, due to News not working correctly for me.

Why Britain should expect more from the disabled for their own good, by the paralysed doctor in charge of assessing benefits claims.


Dr Stephen Duckworth was paralysed in a rugby accident aged 20
Now he heads team assessing whether or not disabled people are fit to work
Says that the disabled should be encouraged to be independent

The paralysed man in charge of assessing benefit claimants has said the UK expects too little of disabled people.

Dr Stephen Duckworth, who broke his neck during a rugby accident 33 years ago, said society is letting down the disabled by not demanding a contribution from them.

The 53-year-old now leads the team that will assess those who apply for the personal independence payments, which will replace the disability living allowance.

Dr Duckworth – who trained himself to breathe by using his diaphragm rather than his chest muscles – believes more than 20 per cent of Britain’s five million disabled have wrongly become dependent on benefits.

He said ‘at least a million, probably north of a million’ of those ‘deemed to be disabled... have got there through system failure and the way society is organised’.

The father of four – who receives DLA himself and will be assessed for the new benefit – said that minor injuries had become ‘a very common avenue towards multiple benefit receipt’.

Full story

So how comes he is claiming DLA surely he should set an example to us all and struggle bravely on and I wonder who will carry out his PIP assessment and will he be turned down.

PIP and DLA are not out of work benefits anyway.

Yes, I know that, but Dr Duckworth appears to think different. This was my printed reply to the story in the Daily Mail :

There are many disabled people who use a wheelchair and still work. I have multiple sclerosis, COPD, and asthma despite being a lifelong non-smoker. I've been in an electric wheelchair since 1986 and worked as a Welfare Rights Lawyer until I was 63 years old.

I then sat on Social Security Appeal Tribunals but had to retire when I was 70 years old. However, there are many people who have conditions which make it impossible to do any work, especially those with multiple pathologies.

The main problem from my experience, is that employers who are faced with employing a fit and healthy person, or one who has a history of ill-health or disability will in most cases choose the former rather than the latter. Employers need to change their attitude to employing disabled people, and the DWP need to accept that there are people who would like to work, but illness or disability prevents them from doing so.

Hi Jim40!

I read the Daily Mail online earlier and I had the feeling it was you Jim!

Hi
There always seems to be major problems in people understanding the basic things of: you can be sick, you can be disabled and you can be both sick and disabled.
Every individual has individual unique circumstances and the current systems just don't seem to cope.
Thanks- had my say- keep up the good work, I would not have done it without you all.